Knowledge is A Dangerous Thing
by x.Kaley.x
Summary: If you don't create change, change will create you.
1. Prologue

_**Knowledge is A Dangerous Thing  
>Prologue<strong>_

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><p>Warnings: <strong>This story will contain femme-slash. So I guess if you don't like that, then you shouldn't read it. This story also will be very out of character later on. You've been warned, that's all I'm saying.<strong>

Disclaimer: Obviously, I'm not making any money from this or I would not be nineteen and living in my parents house. I'd be living in LA, with a poolboy that looks like a young Tom Riddle, and have that special little card that they give you in California. Anyways, I don't own the characters, or plot, just the words.

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><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>

_Hi there, everyone, I'm starting yet another story. This is a challenge response to the **Pair and Plot Challenge **on the **Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum**. Although it is a challenge response, I very much enjoyed writing this chapter and look forward to writing it. I hope that if you like it, you'll stay for the ride. But anyways, here we go!_

_Kaley_

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><p>Hermione Granger was not your average girl. She was the brightest student in her class, yet she was a muggle born. She was a part of saving the world, at least once a year for the last six years, along with Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. She spent more time in the library than some of the books did, and that is where our story starts.<p>

You see, Hermione was a very curious girl; eager to learn new things about the world and assist with the downfall of Lord Voldemort. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had tried everything to rid the Wizarding World of the darkest wizard of all time. The Horcruxes, although that was the only way Voldemort _could _be defeated, were extremely hard to find and more people were dying every day. Hogwarts was barely a school anymore, it was more a safe-house for threatened half-blood and muggle-born families.

Everyone needed a solution quickly, because there was no time to wait on Harry to find and destroy four pieces of Voldemort's soul. Although they were still searching for the objects, Hermione was busy trying to find a solution.

And she found it, in a random paragraph of a book she happened to pick up. The answer was staring her plainly in the face,

_Time travel._

Hermione nearly smacked herself in the face. She could _not_ time travel to change the past, it would change far too much. She could see it happen in her head. Tom Riddle, a teenager, tragically murdered in his sleep. And years later, Harry Potter as an eleven year old sitting with his _parents_ in Godric's Hollow, his Uncle Sirius chatting animatedly with them as he receives his Hogwarts letter. Neville would be learning spells and things from his parents, they would be sane because they were never tortured. Hundreds of lives would be saved, and all she had to do was go back in time, and change one thing. One tiny speck, that grew to be one of the worst things to happen in history.

Time manipulation was dodgy, at best. She wondered what else would have changed. Hagrid might have graduated Hogwarts and went to do more, if it weren't for Voldemort. Moaning Myrtle would be alive, with a husband and a family possibly, now. She'd have a life, instead of haunting a bloody girls' lavatory.

Hermione would be able to go on with life, and not have to worry about her friends anymore. She put her head in her hands.

If she went back in time and did what she had to, Harry, Ron, and her would not be friends. They only became friends because they saved her from the troll. If she were to kill Riddle, he would never have possessed Quirrel, the troll never would have been let in, and the three of them would never be friends.

She resigned herself that that would be fine, if she could save the Wizarding World, everything would be absolutely splendid. Sacrificing her happiness, so that people could _live_ and be free of evil, was worth it.

Hermione quickly gathered up all her parchment, checked out the books, and headed straight for Professor Dumbledore's office. If she was going to do this, she was going to be smart and not mess everything up. She did not even know if there was a way to go back that far, and come _back_. She needed answers and help.

Professor Dumbledore took counselling his students very seriously. He kept a close watch on all of them, and if something seemed to be wrong with someone, he would ask. This is how Pansy Parkinson came to be in his office. She was upset and crying. Her parents were murdered two days previously, by Death Eaters. Her parents were neutral in the war, but apparently Voldemort's cronies thought, 'well, if you're not with us, you're with them'. She just received the news last night.

The Headmaster poured her a cup of peppermint tea to calm her nerves and after a few minutes she was able to speak. Pansy apologized vehemently to the Professor, for being rude, for the torment of the muggleborns in the school, in general she was making amends for her wrongdoings. She no longer wanted to act like a Voldemort follower, because what they did made her sick. She didn't even feel safe in her own dormitory, she slept in the Room of Requirement last night.

"Miss Parkinson, I must say again how very sorry I am for your loss." The old Professor removed his half-moon spectacles and looked at her. She could see he had aged significantly these past few years. "When my parents died, I was also very upset. They weren't murdered, but I took their deaths hard. My father died in Azkaban, and my mother died at home with my younger sister."

Pansy never realized that Dumbledore had a family, that he had a sister. She had never wondered about the old wizard's past. "I'm sorry, Professor." She would have asked about his sister, but didn't because she assumed it was a touchy subject. That was the same reason she didn't ask why his father had been in Azkaban.

"It's quite alright, dear." His eyes were watery for a second but he shook his head and put his glasses back on. He smiled, "You know, Miss Parkinson, I never would have thought you would come to me for advice or help. However, I'm glad that you did. The Order would love to have you as a member, and I'm quite shocked that was the first thing you asked me when you came in here today. You must realize though, that revenge is not a good reason to join a cause. I trust that you aren't joining to get revenge on the death eaters that killed your parents?"

Pansy shook her head vehemently. "No, sir, I want to join because it is the right thing to do. I want to help people. I hate what Voldemort is doing and I want it to end."

"Very well-" Dumbledore began but was interrupted by his door opening and Hermione Granger walked in with an arm full of books and parchment.

Pansy, her face still red and swollen, and Professor Dumbledore both looked at her.

"Oh, Professor, I'm sorry." Hermione felt embarrassed. She should have knocked, really, but she hadn't even thought about it. She looked at Pansy quickly. "I'll just come back later."

"No, no, dear. Please stay." The Headmaster motioned to the chair beside Pansy. "Have a seat, we were just discussing some things. You seem flustered dear, what's on your mind?"

Hermione gave Dumbledore a look. "Its about the _project_. I believe I've found a solution for that particular problem, and I would like to get your thoughts on it." She gave a sideways glance to the Slytherin, "I could come back in a bit, I see that you're busy and it wouldn't bother me to wait outside."

Dumbledore smiled, "You can speak freely, Miss Granger. Miss Parkinson has decided that she'd like to help us with our goals."

Hermione looked at Pansy with slightly wider eyes than usual. She noticed that her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and that her black hair was tied up in a messy pony tail.

"My parents were murdered two days ago." Pansy answered the unsaid question, looking down at her hands and fidgeting a bit in her chair. "I just want it all to end, I want things to be normal. I don't want anyone else to die. Except Voldemort, just him. Then send all the Death Eaters to Azkaban to rot for eternity."

Hermione was shocked. The girl that followed Draco Malfoy around like a puppy-dog, that she was sure was one of the few female death eaters herself, was sitting here wishing away all the evil and ready to fight for the good. Her parents were in Australia, because she couldn't bring them here, and they weren't safe in the muggle world with its daily attacks.

Another thing was tacked onto her mental list of positive changes that would be made were she able to go on this mission.

"I'm sorry about your parents, Parkinson, you have my condolences." She spoke softly to the girl before turning to Dumbledore. "I have some questions, and a solution to the war, if what I want to do is possible. I don't want Ron or Harry to know about it, and I don't know if it will even work, but I have to try."

Professor Dumbledore looked at Hermione sadly, he knew what she was going to ask before she asked it. Hermione fidgeted in her seat, looking back and forth between the other two people in the room. There was a small silence before she spoke.

"Sir, what is the year limit on time travel?" The brunette asked quickly. "If it isn't less than sixty years, I can go back, and I can fix this. I can take him out before he's even a problem. I can go back in time, and _kill Tom Riddle._ Everything will be okay then. Harry's parents will be alive, _so many people will be alive, _if I do this. Can you please help me?"

There was a desperation in her voice. All she wanted was for everyone to be safe, with their families, and not have to worry about inferi and werewolves and attacks. She wanted everything to be normal, and if she could she would make it that way.

Professor Dumbledore was quiet for a moment before he nodded. "There is a way, Miss Granger, but you must know that what you are doing is very dangerous. Tom was a terrifying person even at your age, a dangerous person. If you go back, Miss Granger, there is no guarantee that you will come back. Return tomorrow, after you've thought about all the consequences, and if you would still like to do it, then I will assist you."

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><p>That's the end of the Prologue. The chapters themselves will be quite long, I'm aiming for 4,000 words per chapter. The way that this story has to be told, requires a lot of back story and development and I'm going to do my very best on it. Anyways, review if you liked it. Or if you didn't, you can add constructive criticism. Flame me, and I flame you.<p>

Love, Tea Cakes, and Fanfiction,

Kaley


	2. Hermione Can Be Scary, Too

**Knowledge is A Dangerous Thing  
>Hermione Can Be Scary Too<strong>

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><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>

_And the adventure begins! Sorry its late, the login thing on here was screwy, but here is the first actual chapter. It is shorter than I wanted it to be, but its still pretty long. I hope you like the chapter. You'll see more Pansy/Hermione development over time. It will take awhile. But anyways, enjoy!_

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><p>Hermione left Professor Dumbledore's office and walked back to the Gryffindor common room, thinking about what she was going to do. She was already going to do it, but she decided to take the Professor's advice and think it over again. She wanted the chance to spend a fun night with her friends before she changed the world so that they, most likely, weren't even going to be her friends anymore.<p>

_It would be selfish of me if that is the only reason I wouldn__'t do it._ Hermione thought as she approached the painting of the Fat Lady.

"Venomous tentacula." She spoke and the portrait smiled at her before swinging open.

"At last, she returns from the library." Ron spoke sarcastically from the chess set as he saw Hermione enter. "Thought one of those books ate you."

Hermione laughed. "No, Ron, I'm all in one piece."

_For today. _Hermione's mind added.

Ron was playing Harry in chess, so she took a seat next to them in the armchair. She set her feet on the ottoman and sighed heavily. Neither of the boys noticed her obvious frustration.

"Find anything interesting, Hermione?" Harry asked, taking one of Ron's rooks in the process.

_A lot actually, I might save the Wizarding World, I think that__'s pretty interesting._

"Not really, I didn't browse the 'interesting' section today."

"The library has an interesting section?" Ron asked with fake hope, before he started laughing.

Hermione laughed as well, and she enjoyed her last night with her friends. She hoped that if and when she came back, that at least they would all still be friends. Even if they weren't, she figured that it was worth it if everyone was safe and happy. Her needs were less than that of the collective.

That night, before going to sleep, she owled Professor Dumbledore her answer.

The next morning, Hermione Granger awoke early, around four thirty in the morning. She quietly packed her trunk and put a featherweight charm on it. She made her bed by herself, because even though she was leaving, she did not want the house elves to do it for her. She looked around the sleeping figures of the girls she'd known her entire time at Hogwarts, and smiled before ducking out the dormitory door, and walked out of the common room on her way to Professor Dumbledore's office.

The Headmaster was not the only person in the study as she entered. Pansy Parkinson was seated, like yesterday, in one of the chairs in front of the desk. This time she wasn't crying. No, she had her trunk sitting beside her. Hermione gave her a quizzical look, that was answered by the Headmaster before she could ask.

"Miss Parkinson would like to know if you would have her as company, as help, on your journey, Miss Granger." The Professor did not have the usual twinkle in his eyes, but he had a small smile. "I believe you'll need help on your journey, and Miss Parkinson could provide the help you need."

Hermione considered this. Pansy Parkinson had been right nasty to her throughout their years at Hogwarts. She had called her a mudblood, made fun of her appearance, and just been one of the banes of her existence. However, this girl had motivation to do the right thing now. Her parents had been murdered. She realized that Pansy wanted her family back, and if she wanted to help then so be it.

"Pansy, this is going to be dangerous. When we come back, _if_ _we come back_, things won't be the same. Everyone and everything will be different, you're friends might not be your friends, you might have family that you didn't before, and you won't recognize them. This might seriously mess with your head. You could go insane."

_But its better than this._

Pansy seemed to know what she was doing because she responded quickly. "I understand the risks, and I am willing to accept them. So Granger, are you going to take me with you?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes, I'll take you with me."

_Now, I__'ve doomed someone else._

"Very well, Miss Granger, Miss Parkinson, we'll begin preparing you. The first thing we have to do is give you false identities, you obviously cannot have the same name as you do in this time, it could seriously injure the timeline. I want you two to come up with names you find fit. We will also have to doctor up some school records for you, which will say that you were home schooled together as your parents did not want you to leave for school."

He went on with the other things that they would need. They would have to transfigure all of their clothing to fit the time period. Hermione would leave her muggle clothing in a small bag in Dumbledore's office, seeing as she was going to be a pureblood witch, muggle clothes would raise suspicions. Pansy's name would be changed to Amira Michaels, and Hermione would now be Ophelia Lornson. Their parents had basically raised them together, you see, so they were as close as sisters, but no blood was shared. They were both merely home schooled pureblood witches, who's parents had died when experimenting with potions and now they had no where to go.

After all the preparations were made, Hermione Granger and Pansy Parkinson stood with papers in one hand and trunks in the other, ready to go and _hopefully_ save the Wizarding world. They were as prepared as they could get.

"Are you two ready?" Professor Dumbledore asked, looking at them both gravely. They nodded. He then walked over to a drawer and opened it. He pulled out a beautiful necklace, or at least it looked like one. However, the chain was long and the pendant was that of an hourglass.

_A time-turner. _Hermione thought, _I didn't know they could take you back that far._

"This is a time-turner, but not just any one that the ministry would have given you before they mysteriously got destroyed." He gave a smile and a pointed look at Hermione. "This is a special one, you see that the chain is made of white gold, instead of yellow, and that the hourglass is made of diamond instead of regular glass, and that it holds no sand. That is because you place the sand inside with a spell."

_Oh, that explains it._

Dumbledore walked over the pair of girls and slipped it over their heads. He touched their shoulders reassuringly, "Good luck, I hope you achieve what you are going to do. Be careful."

After passing Hermione a slip of parchment, he didn't leave them room to say anything before his aged and blackened hand pointed his wand at the hourglass and said "**Transporto lemma tergum sexaginta annus."**

And with a strange sound that sounded like siphoning, they were gone.

And the Professor suddenly had a memory of meeting two strange girls on the Hogwarts Grounds, named Ophelia and Amira one autumn day, fifty years ago.

The fact that two girls were standing on the Hogwarts grounds, paperwork and trunks in hand, was not that strange. The strange thing was that they appeared out of nowhere, while students were changing classes, and you weren't supposed to be able to apparate on Hogwarts' property.

Hermione was the first to get her bearings and noticed that everyone was staring at the pair of them . She slowly slipped the time turner off of Pansy and slid it under her robes. No one noticed this, they were too busy gawking and wondering what was happening.

Luckily, or unlucky if you think about it, a prefect came up to them. He was taller than the girls, of course, with black hair, and Slytherin adorned robes. This boy had an air of mystery and danger about him. Hermione gave him a once over, and noticed that his shoes were shiny and new, and this boy had a ring on, a ring that she had seen in an office of a school, so far away.

"Good afternoon ladies, my name is Tom Riddle, could I assist you with finding Headmaster Dippet's office? I assume he knows that you are coming today?"

He spoke with perfect enunciation and did not stumble over his words. Tom did not seem bothered at all that two girls appeared out of thin air. Apparently, things that were different did not scare this boy, which was probably a bad thing.

_The perfect gentleman, isn__'t he?_

"Good afternoon, Tom, my name is Ophelia Lornson and this is my friend Amira Michaels." Hermione replied as if she had been saying the same thing for years. "It would be lovely of you to escort us to the Headmaster's office.

_Mum, I want you to meet my friends, this is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley._

Tom smiled and levitated the girls' trunks, because he was a gentleman and a gentleman never let ladies carry their own luggage. A charmer, as well, Hermione derived from the smile and the way he looked at the girls. Lord Voldemort used to be a teenager as well, of course he had hormones like the rest of us.

However, she knew how ugly this boy could be - would be-, in the future and was impervious to his wiles.

He led them to Headmaster Armando Dippet's office, which Hermione thought was incredibly bare in comparison with Dumbledore's office in her time. The paintings were all there, of course, but the strange widgets that littered Professor Dumbledore's office were missing. There was an odd emptiness in the room.

Tom had left them in the office alone with the Professor, and was apparently waiting outside to escort them to their next destination. Either the front entrance of the grounds or their dormitories, Hermione surmised.

Ophelia and Amira handed over their paperwork, and explained that they had gotten on the grounds by port key from Australia, because that's where they were raised. After explaining their situation, and the tragic death of their parents, Dippet was compliant and sorted them in the office there.

Hermione, or Ophelia for all intents and purposes, was actually sorted into Slytherin. She was up to some pretty Slytherin-esque activities now, so she was amused rather than insulted by this. Pansy was also sorted into Slytherin, it was nice that some things weren't going to change.

After the rules were given, for the second time of the girls' lives, they were to be escorted to the Slytherin common room by Tom. He smiled again when they walked out.

"Ophelia, Amira, what is the verdict?" He was referring to their sorting.

"Slytherin." Hermione spoke, "Both of us are in Slytherin."

Tom's smile broadened. "Excellent, you'll be in with me then. Well not sleeping wise, but you'll both be in my house. I'm the Slytherin prefect. I can give detentions, take points, and have quite a bit of responsibility for the students in my house."

He explained all the houses to the girls as they walked down to the dungeons. Hermione was groaning inwardly. She was a Gryffindor prefect and already knew everything that he was telling her.

_Repetition is annoying, unless you__'re memorizing potion ingredients for an exam._

Her façade on the outside, though was one of an a completely interested person, as they had their _completely interesting _conversation. She wondered if she should just do it here, those two magical words to fix the worlds' problem. She didn't want to go to Azkaban, and she did want to find out if he had followers now, and obliviate them so they couldn't become the next dark lord.

_Not yet, but soon._

The Slytherin dorms were warm, contrary to popular belief in her time. Pansy tried to look surprised at the pretty green light that entered the common room through the windows that were under the black lake. Tom had showed them the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

"I would escort you to your door personally, but the stairs turn to a slide when a man is on them."

_Man? You are a boy. _

The went to their dorm and there were only two other girls things in the room, what their names were or where they were didn't really matter. Pansy and Hermione were alone, so Hermione cast a muffliato charm.

"That was by far the weirdest and most stressful thing I have ever done in my entire life." Pansy commented, throwing herself back onto the bed with a large sigh. "I'm glad you did most of the talking, I'd have given us up in the first minute."

Hermione smiled and sat on her own bed. This was a very precarious position they had themselves in, for all they knew the time line could have changed already, and everything was normal without having to kill the boy. However, just to be sure, Hermione was still going to finish the job.

"You know what's going to be horrible right?" Pansy asked with a slightly horrified face.

_Killing a person with a whole soul?_

"No idea." Hermione said softly, trying to ignore her thoughts.

"The clothes. This is the forties, you know. The clothes were atrocious." She realized that this was Pansy's way of trying to be funny and lighten the situation.

So Hermione laughed. They talked for awhile longer about nothing in particular, before a first year girl who looked frightened out of her mind came to retrieve them for dinner, on Tom's orders.

They freshened up before walking down the staircase, to see Tom talking to a few other boys in the corner. Obviously, they were being talked about because the voices quieted when they were noticed. Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Ladies, I was just telling our housemates about you." Tom said, turning his back on the boys and walking towards Hermione and Pansy. "Shall we go to dinner. I assure you Hogwarts has some of the best food I've ever eaten."

_Yes, I__'m sure the muggle orphanage you were raised in had some horrible porridge. _

"We are famished," Pansy answered for them. She might as well get used to talking, sometime. At least a reply for dinner wouldn't get them slaughtered.

_Hopefully._

The dinner at Hogwarts was quiet, sort of. There was a quiet announcement that they had received some new students, who were placed in Slytherin. Now everyone was talking about them. Hermione ate quietly, as did Pansy, both answering questions posed by their housemates.

Strangely enough, Hermione noticed that everything was relatively normal. On the surface, anyways. However, things at Hogwarts were never really normal.

Hermione realized this when she had to going over goblin history in her head to keep the probing in her mind away. She looked Tom in the eyes.

"Tom, it is impolite to snoop." She said quietly from across the table. "The goblin wars were particularly tragic, you know. Horrible things happened."

His eyes fell back to his plate in silence. Hermione could be scary when she looked at you that way.

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><p>Reviews make me insanely happy! Tell me what you think.<p> 


	3. A Lioness in Snakeskin

Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing

Who Knew A Lioness Could Fit In A Snakeskin?

**-Author's Note-**

Hazah She finally updates. Sorry its taken so long. I suck, this isn't beta'd. I'm pretty sure it makes sense, haha. But I hope you all like it. I'm not abandoning anything, its just taking me awhile because I'm going through a lot. But don't give up on me.

Kaley

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><p>Hermione awoke slightly panicked the next morning. She had never woken up to green curtains around her bed. They were either crimson, like in the Gryffindor dormitories, or black like at Grimmauld Place. However, she regained composure quickly and remembered where she was and what she was doing there. She sat up and noticed that she must have woken up late because the dorm was void of anyone else but Pansy.<p>

"Good morning." Pansy was sitting on her bed, brushing her hair in front of an enchanted mirror. "Forget when you were?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, I did and good morning."

"I did the same thing when I woke up this morning." She replied. "Hurry and get dressed or we'll miss breakfast all together. Everyone else just went down about twenty minutes ago."

The brunette nodded and quickly got ready for the day. She grabbed her satchel with her books and her wand from the bedside table and motioned to Pansy that she was ready. The pair made the trek to the Great Hall where everyone else was nearly done eating.

Hermione took a seat at the end of the table and put some eggs and bacon on her plate. Today was the first day that she and Pansy's mission really started. She would need to start keeping a better eye on the things around her and keep her mind sharp. They were both somewhat nervous but knew they need to keep their cool in order to complete their goal.

_You know, Voldemort really made it look so easy to kill a person._

After breakfast, Hermione and Pansy made their way down to Potions class. However, Tom kept staring at Hermione, or in his eyes Ophelia, the entire class. She would look back and he would just be there looking at her. She kept reciting muggle poetry in her head just in case he was trying to peek into her mind.

After class had ended Tom stopped the girls in the hallway.

"Ophelia, Amira, how is the first day of classes for you?" He asked as if he hadn't been trying to pierce Hermione's soul with his gaze a few minutes ago.

"Wonderful, Tom." Pansy answered for them, "Well we have only had one, but so far its great."

They all smiled and looked pleasant, to a person who did not know any of them, three friends were standing in the Hallway. To another Slytherin its Tom being a ladies man. To a present day Gryffindor its one part of the Golden Trio and an ally attempting to take down a murderous tyrant. Perspective. The world is about perspective.

_I want to know why he's like this._

The three of them chatted for a few more minutes before making their way to Ancient Runes. The rest of the day went mostly without incident, except when a boy with the last name Goyle blew up a ferret in Transfiguration.

Hermione couldn't quit laughing because it reminded her of her fourth year when the impostor of Mad-Eye Moody turned Draco Malfoy into a bouncy ferret.

The nostalgia faded because when she would go back, that probably would have never happened.

_I don't care if no one else really remembers. I will always know Draco Malfoy as the amazing bouncing ferret._

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><p>The next couple of days went without incident for the pair. They went to class, and Hermione was slowly gaining more and more information about the Slytherins. Turns out it was a good idea to make friends with Pansy's gran, Rose, that girl knows absolutely everything there is to know about everyone.<p>

Did you know that Abraxas Malfoy charms his hair a brighter blonde than it really is? Or that two of the girls in seventh year of Ravenclaw offer special kinds of 'tutoring' in the magic of love? Or that Olive Hornby really has the hugest crush on that Hufflepuff girl who cries all the time, Myrtle I think her name is? Hermione had no idea about any of this until Rose told her.

Night had officially fallen over the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Even the lamps were dimmer than usual and the air carried more fog than usual for a night like this. This night would make you think your house was haunted, or there was a boggart in your wardrobe. The moon was full and bright, leaving a beautiful glow all around the castle.

However, Hermione was still outside in a bush with Harry Potter's invisibility cloak and marauder's map hunting evil like a vigilante. She wondered why no one had ever thought of this, to go back and just stop him. Perhaps some were too tempted to change stuff for personal gain, re-buy your lottery tickets with the right numbers, put money somewhere so you are rich when you're older, bringing back a person from that time with you who is deceased now. You had to absolutely not want anything for yourself to do this mission right.

Hermione hoped she was strong enough as she waited for the footprints on the map to reach the edge of the forbidden forest before she left the cover of the bush. After she saw the name cross the line into the forest she made her way that way.

A few minutes later Hermione reached the forest as well. After looking at the map one last time and putting it away she snuck to where the map said Tom was. What she saw really surprised her when she approached the scene.

"Hi mum." She heard Tom's voice in a way she never heard it. "Its your son, Tom. I really wish you were alive to be proud of me. I'm doing great in class and I'm learning so much more because I'm studying so much. If it weren't for that muggle bastard hurting you, you would be here with me and I wouldn't have had to grow up in that _place."_

Hermione thought she saw him shudder, but it was so dark.

"I know I don't come here often to talk to you, but I just really wanted you to know that someday I'm going to make it so that muggles can't hurt wizards anymore. I'm going to make it so no wizard grows up without their family like I had to. No one."

Hermione's mouth was open. You would have swore someone used 'stupefy' by the way Hermione was stunned. Of course Tom Riddle has issues, everyone knew that, but from his perspective and to now finally know the thought that had cost thousands of people their lives over the next sixty years, what had started it.

She wanted to rethink her plan. A well placed 'obliviate' spell would do the job, make him forget about it all, tell him he's a muggle born and let him live a normal life. A psychiatrist would help but Hermione highly doubted that using muggle medicine of any kind was as easily acceptable as in her time. He needed someone to help him sort through those thoughts and let him know that there were just as many bad wizards as bad muggles.

Hermione listened to Tom's conversation with his mother, whom had passed while giving birth to him sadly, and wanted to cry the entire time. He was an evil man, in the future though, and not yet. Right now, he was a mislead boy going in the wrong direction. He was never raised, he never had family, he never had people who cared enough to tell him what was right and what was wrong. The only thing he's ever been told is that he's bad because he can do magic, by muggles.

She finally understood. Perspective, it is all about perspective. A pureblood wizard who had never sat down and had a conversation with an open-minded muggle, who never had their mum ask to repair the good china with their wand, who never had their muggle father mention how cool their animated paintings are, would not understand that muggles aren't bad people.

That wizard, who didn't have parents, who didn't have love, who was beaten because something broke in the room when no on touched. He would only see muggles as bad. What if you were starved because they thought you kept bringing snakes in, when the snakes just came to talk to you? Wouldn't you hate muggles too?

After a while, Tom quit talking and just sat there staring at the moon. Hermione really wanted to go and hold him and tell him that its okay and she was going to help him get though it. She wanted so badly to just cast a spell and make his pain go away. She saw him as a person right now, objectively, and knew he needed love.

Hermione didn't though. She quietly made her way back to the castle under the cloak. She couldn't bring herself to try and love the Dark Lord. What if it didn't work? What if that is what originally made him go all crazy because some muggle-born broke his heart and that was just left out of history? Farfetched, yes, but it is good to go through all possibilities in your head of a situation before following through.

This situation is one that will make you have to decide between a proven method or a variable. Avada Kedavra will work even if you don't truly mean it. Love, you have to truly mean it for it to have any power.

After she made it back to the castle it was way after curfew so she snuck back to the dungeons and her dormitory, she did not sleep though. The girl had far to much on her mind.

Hermione tried her very best to avoid Tom for the next few days. She was far too open to him actually being a person, that it would have impacted her decision to go on with the mission the way it was originally planned. When you watch a future madman do something you, as a sane and healthy person, would do or do participate it regularly, tends to mess with your mind a little.

_So now, I have to kill a person with a whole soul and they have emotions to boot. _

She hoped, very strongly, that doing this would not make her a bad person.

* * *

><p>"Now students, can anyone please tell me when you are supposed to plant venomous tentacula seeds?" Professor Sprout asked the class, only one hand shot up. "Miss Lornson."<p>

"You can plant them anytime, but the venom is more potent if you plant while Mars is in retrograde." Hermione smiled. One piece of normalcy, she was still the know-it-all.

"Very good, ten points to Slytherin." The professor continued with the class. Hermione had to concentrate very hard because her mind kept wandering to last night. She'd already decided to move on with the original plan, regardless of what kind of person Voldemort was now.

Hermione took the most meticulous notes in order to keep her mind off of Riddle for the day.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day went by swimmingly. That is until Pansy was on her way to her dormitory to grab something out of her trunk before lunch, and she heard hushed voices.<p>

"Riddle, I can't make it at five, I have quidditch practice." This voice sounded agitated and was very low. Pansy though it reminded her of Goyle.

"Well then how about eight o'clock in the room of requirement? We can't risk anymore meetings where Dumbledore is going to find them." Riddles voice replied quietly to the boy.

"That's fine." Three voices, other than Tom's answered.

Pansy's eyes grew wide and she turned on her heel and managed to get away without her shoes clicking off the stone floor. She made it to the Great Hall to meet Hermione and plopped down next to her.

"I thought you were going to get your charms book?" Hermione questioned, giving the girl a strange look.

"We need to go talk somewhere else. Room of hidden things in twenty minutes. Eat quick and meet me there." Pansy was off again after she grabbed an apple.

Hermione was baffled. What had happened for Pansy to be acting so strange? She has to be talking about the mission that's the only thing we would need privacy for. Maybe she saw or heard something.

Hermione ate a few more pieces of her chicken and got up to go meet Pansy on the seventh floor. She wondered how different the room would look with sixty years less of stuff in there.

* * *

><p>As it turns out it wasn't that different, a few less things Hermione noticed. One bookcase was missing and a couple brooms that were hanging from the ceiling in her time weren't there. The room was far too messy to really notice anything out of place. There weren't any sherry bottles anywhere either, Professor Trelawney had yet to start her position at Hogwarts.<p>

"I heard Riddle talking about some meeting with three other boys about meeting in this room tonight at eight." Pansy said in one breath as soon as the door closed behind her and she saw Hermione standing next to a rather plain bust of Rowena Ravenclaw. "They're planning something now, they said they needed a meeting place where Dumbledore couldn't find them."

_The room of requirement is oh so useful for hiding from the Professor's who aim to get us in trouble. _

"Well, then we need to start getting invited, don't we?" Hermione answered with a smirk that rivalled any Slytherin in History.

Who knew a lioness could fit in a snakeskin?

* * *

><p>Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk, he kept getting new memories every so often, and was waiting for the day when everything would just change. He wondered if everyone else had noticed the memory changes, or he was the only one. He worried for the two girls who were on this mission.<p>

This was, perhaps, the most reckless thing he'd ever let students do. He understood it was reckless, but they were both above age and willing to fight. He currently had about four minutes to figure out how to explain this to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley who apparently had found out about their friend and now were on their way up to his office.

The old professor sighed and a few moments later there was a knock at his door.

"Come in Harry, Ron." Professor Dumbledore spoke from his desk. The door opened and the boys walked in. "Good evening."

"Evening, Professor." Harry greeted curtly. "So is it true, what Professor McGonagall told us?"

The headmaster merely nodded in affirmation.

"Why would you let her go? Why wouldn't you just send me? I could have done it." Harry was trying to reason with him but it was far too late. "You shouldn't have put her in danger like that I could have handled this, you could have sent me if you wanted. You should have talked to me about this plan."

Albus sighed. "Harry, it was not my idea, it was Miss Grangers'."

* * *

><p>Sorry that its taken me so long to get this chapter out. I haven't abandoned any of my stories its just I'm going through a lot of personal stuff at home, work, etc. and its just pretty freakin lame. But anyways, here is the second chapter.<p> 


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